New Delhi: What began as an April Fool's prank turned so convincing that former India captain Sourav Ganguly threatened to resign, Harbhajan Singh has recalled.
It was April Fool's Day in 2005, a day before India were to begin a one-day series against Pakistan in Kochi. Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan decided to prank Ganguly by showing him fake newspaper clippings in which he had allegedly criticised his teammates for being party animals, irresponsible and distant.
"Puri team baithi hui thi (the entire team was sitting) when we created this drama and decided that we will make an April Fool of Dada. Yuvi started it: 'Dada, what is this statement that you have given to the press?' He told him that you have called Yuvi party animal, Harbhajan ko kisi ki padi nahi hai, Ashish Nehra is also in his own world and Zaheer Khan also parties a lot," Harbhajan recalled in a podcast interview with PTI at its headquarters last week.
"Dada said 'when did I say this?' Then we showed those clippings to him and said, 'What is this?'," said the 46-year-old.
Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid then joined the prank, pretending to reprimand Ganguly over the statements.
"...we had already spoken to the seniors about this. I told Paaji (Tendulkar), 'Paaji, you tell him'. And he said to 'Dada, if you have done this, this is wrong'. Rahul Dravid was also playing along, so he also said, 'Dada, this is not done, yaar'. When two senior players said that, Dada thought (this must be genuine).
"He said 'I swear, I didn't do this. I'll give up the captaincy if (it's proved that) I did this'."
The prank continued when Harbhajan and a few other players picked up their bags and started walking out, prompting Ganguly to chase after them.
"The poor guy...While he was reading them (the newspaper clips), two or three of us picked up our bags and started walking out. Dada came running after us, saying, 'Arre yaar, wait, guys! The match is tomorrow. What are you people doing?"
The prank ended when one of the players broke character and laughed.
"Poor Dada was the kind of captain whom we could fool that day, but later we felt, 'Yaar, we've really put this decent man through it.' If it had been some other captain, he would genuinely have made us pick up our bags and told us, 'Get out of here and go home'.
"But he was like a big brother," Harbhajan said.
Wright waited outside
While the prank unfolded, India coach John Wright was waiting on the field to begin training. Harbhajan had asked him to stay away from the team's "internal matter" for the time being.
"John Wright was waiting outside, thinking, 'When are they going to come out? When do I set the field? When do I start getting them to field?' 15 minutes, 20 minutes passed -- the team still hadn't come out.
"And he just kept waiting, while all this drama was going on inside."
Keeping the dressing room light
Harbhajan said such pranks helped teammates bond and prevented the dressing room from becoming overly serious.
"Because if, in sport, you talk only about cricket or only about whatever sport it is the dressing room becomes gloomy, serious. Then the fun goes away. A happy dressing room is a winning dressing room," he said.
India went on to beat Pakistan by 87 runs in the opening match, with Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid scoring centuries and Sachin Tendulkar taking five wickets. India, however, lost the six-match series 2-4.